Vehicles using fossil fuel, such as gasoline and diesel oil, create exhaust gases which generally include various pollutants. A technology of using storage or secondary batteries, which can be charged and discharged, as a power source for vehicles has attracted considerable attention as one method of solving the above-mentioned problem. As a result, electric vehicles (EV), which are operated using only a battery, and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), which jointly use a battery and a conventional combustion engine, have been developed, and some are now being used commercially. Various nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) secondary batteries have been widely used as the power source in EV and HEV applications. More recently, however, the use of lithium-ion secondary batteries has been proposed.
High output and large capacity are needed for such secondary batteries to be used as the power source. For this reason, such batteries are typically constructed from a plurality of smaller battery cells (unit cells) that are interconnected in series or in parallel with each other to form a battery module. A plurality of battery modules is interconnected to obtain a battery pack having the desired output and capacity characteristics.
In order to use battery packs of the type described above in various applications, including applications where the devices which are in power communication with the battery pack are subject to movement, such as, for example, various motorized vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, trains and the like, it is generally desirable to establish a battery mount which may be used to secure the battery pack to the device with which it is in power communication and also secure the battery modules that make up the battery pack with respect to one another. Using a mount to secure the battery pack and modules in the manner described enables electrical interconnection of the battery pack with the devices with which it is in powered communication. In some applications, it is also desirable that the mount provide physical protection for the battery pack, such that the battery modules are covered. While various types of battery mounts for mounting individual batteries are known including certain covered mounts, and such mounts may be used to mount individual battery modules, these individual mounts are generally not desirable for use to mount the plurality of battery modules associated with a battery pack, as they require securing the battery modules individually. Therefore, it is desirable to develop mounting systems for mounting a plurality of battery modules as used in battery packs of the types described above.